Fascinated
by Serpent In Red
Summary: Not to say that he would be completely at ease if he were to meet his lovely Senshi from Mercury, but Zachariah would like to think that he would still have his wits with him when he did. (Companion piece to "Mesmerized". One-shots in that AU that focuses more on Ami and Zoisite will be posted here.)
1. Sharing Is Caring

**Prompt**: #67. Have  
><strong>Betas<strong>: None. You have been warned.**  
>Disclaimer<strong>: I don't own these characters, nor am I making any money from them. I merely borrow them from time to time.  
><strong>Rating<strong>: G  
><strong>Notes<strong>: Cross-posted on my LJ.  
><strong>Summary<strong>: The stupidity that overcame his fellow Shitennou when they were presented with lovers from their past lives was astounding, to say the least. Not to say that he would be completely at ease if he were to meet his lovely Senshi from Mercury, but Zachariah would like to think that he would still have his wits with him when he did.

~-0-~

**Sharing Is Caring**

Huddled in the corner of his room, Zachariah Gima was careful to position his computer so that if someone were to barge into his room, the contents on the screen would not be easily seen.

The monitor was the only source of light in the room, casting altering colors onto Zachariah's face as he typed away. Occasionally, he would narrow his eyes at the screen, as if he'd seen something not to his liking. Seconds later, however, he would resume typing.

A knock on the door made him frown. He didn't bother answering, but the door opened anyway, just as he clicked on his mouse to change the window he had been working in on his monitor to another one.

"Are you going to bury yourself in there again?" Kiyoshi asked, appearing at the doorway.

Zachariah glanced at him and quirked a corner of his lips upwards into a sneer, though his fingers didn't stop in their typing. "I thought that's what the lot of you wanted, for me to stay here, all docile and quiet while the rest of you chased after the Senshi."

Kiyoshi remained silent for a while, so long that Zachariah stopped typing and turned his head around to look at him in clear view. His eyes met with Kiyoshi, and the latter seemed to snap out of it, shaking his head.

"We don't need unnecessary complications," Kiyoshi said.

Zachariah made an indistinctive noise but didn't answer.

Kiyoshi stood there for another couple of minutes before sighing. "Jin cooked dinner. When you're ready to stop sulking, he'd left you a plate in the kitchen."

With that, he shut the door behind him.

Zachariah tilted his head to one side and stopped typing, listening carefully for the sounds of footfalls down the stairs. When he was certain that a certain silver-haired General wasn't going to appear again, he changed the window on his monitor back to the one he had been working on before.

After a couple of more keystrokes, he let out a low whoop. His vibrant green eyes quickly scanned over the content, and with each passing second, they narrowed just a bit more until they were mere slits.

Instead of running downstairs to confront Kiyoshi, like he usually would do, or tearing down Jin's door to ask for an explanation, Zachariah leaned back in the armchair he was sitting in. The wheels of his mind continued to turn as he looked through the contents again until he came to a decision.

A Cheshire-like grin appeared on his face as he copied and pasted the contents to his desktop and encrypted it so that no one else could access them except for himself.

He had wondered why Jin had seemed so pleased with himself this morning. When the other Shitennou refused to share information, Zachariah had been suspicious. Never in his wildest dreams, however, did Zachariah thought that he would find … such incriminating evidence against Kiyoshi and Jin, and in the form of photos, too.

Awfully silly for Jin to actually believe that he could hide them from Zachariah, _**especially**_ when he had taken those pictures on his phone.

Zachariah rolled his eyes and sighed. The stupidity that overcame his fellow Shitennou when they were presented with lovers from their past lives was astounding, to say the least.

Not to say that he would be completely at ease if he were to meet his lovely Senshi from Mercury, but Zachariah would like to think that he would still have his wits with him when he did.

After all, his Mercury did prefer the companionship of people with brains.

A slow smile appeared on Zachariah's face as he pictured the day when he could meet his lovely water Senshi again. Did she still enjoy swimming? Did she still liked playing chess? Was her curiosity still as strong as it used to be?

Though he knew that he could probably easily find all that information, he stopped himself from doing that. He wanted the pleasure of learning small things about her slowly, the step-by-step, subtle courtship that they could have, similar to what had happened oh so many years ago.

He slyly looked at the encrypted files on his computer screen; thankfully, he didn't have to wait too long anymore for his wishes to come true.


	2. Labs and Projects

**Prompt**: #36. Strangers  
><strong>Betas<strong>: None. You have been warned.**  
>Disclaimer<strong>: I don't own these characters, nor am I making any money from them. I merely borrow them from time to time.  
><strong>Rating<strong>: G  
><strong>Notes<strong>: Cross-posted on my LJ.  
><strong>Summary<strong>: They didn't know one another, but somehow, it felt like they did.

~-0-~

**Labs and Projects**

Mizuno Ami pushed a lock of hair out of her face before she squeezed the top of the pipette, allowing the liquid to fall into the beaker. As she had expected, the liquid turned to a cloudy white color, cuing her to stir the mixture.

Just then, the door opened, and the sound of speaking floated towards her.

"This way please," made it to her ears.

She subconsciously categorized the owner of the voice as Hamanaka Akane, one of her fellow classmates, and kept her eyes on the beaker, watching for any possible changes. She proceeded to ignore the rest of what Akane was saying, pretty certain that the conversation had nothing to do with her.

"It was working this morning," Akane said, "but I don't know what happened."

Ami had no idea if it were her imagination, but Akane's usually polite voice seemed to have an extra touch of warmth in there. Shaking that thought out of her head, Ami wrote down some numbers on the paper that was placed next to experiment set up.

"Have you tried unplugging and plugging it in again?"

Abruptly, Ami's hand stopped.

Somehow, the person's voice struck something in her.

It was completely illogical. Well, she supposed it was only illogical because it was _**her**_. Had it been Minako, Usagi, or even Makoto, it might have been normal, to hear a voice and stop moving. However, for some reason, this particular voice … _**called**_ to her. The person's voice brought to mind the buttery Chardonnays that her mother occasionally enjoyed, and almost grudgingly, she decided that she liked this voice.

Clear blue eyes flickered upwards, and cautiously, she maneuvered so that she could peek at the person who'd talked. Unfortunately, the man had his back towards her, and all she could see was strawberry-blond hair tied back in a ponytail. Ami narrowed her eyes, finding the glossy curls a bit too perfect to naturally exist. Perhaps he was the kind who spent a lot of time at the salons getting his hair done?

Just then, Akane glanced in her direction, and she ducked her head away a second too late.

"Mizuno-san! Sorry, I didn't see you there," Akane said with an amicable smile.

"Hamanaka-san," Ami greeted with a small nod of her head. "That's okay."

Her next words got stuck in her throat, since the mysterious man suddenly turned around, and she received the full impact of his features.

_No wonder Hamanaka-san was being friendlier than usual!_

She couldn't imagine anyone being purposely nasty to such a good-looking young man.

Nonetheless, she immediately averted her eyes, not wanting people to realize that she was staring.

"The computer broke down this morning, and I was going to ask you because I was pretty sure that you could've fixed it, but I couldn't find you, so I had to bother Professor Gima," Akane said.

_Professor!?_

Uncontrollably, Ami took another glance at him, surprised that someone who looked so young was a professor.

"It's no bother," he said, his eyes flickering over to Ami.

Even though she couldn't see herself, Ami was sure she was blushing; she had the tendency to do that whenever someone placed their attention on her, especially when it was a male.

"Well, I'll just get this up and working, and I'll be out of your way, _Mizuno-san._"

The way his voice slid over her name, even though it was just her surname, made it sound so intimate, that it made her embarrassed. For a split second, irritation washed over her, though she had no idea why, let alone who or what she was angry about.

She recomposed herself and smiled. "That's quite alright, Professor Gima. It's hardly distracting me."

With that said, she turned her head back to her project and concentrated on it. She pushed her strange emotions to the back of her mind, wanting to be alone when she analyzed why she'd gotten those feelings. He hadn't even done anything to cause such a reaction out of her; embarrassment had been normal. Though she was getting better at socializing due to her Senshi sisters, it didn't mean she was comfortable with casual flirtation. However, it shouldn't go as far as making her annoyed.

What she didn't notice was that even while she was working, occasional yet subtle glances were still thrown her way.

~-0-~

Zachariah watched as Ami went back to her work as he tried hard to calm down his erratic heartbeat.

It wasn't even because he was happy to see her. Well, he was, but there was a moment there when he felt as if he was facing Sailor Mercury.

And he was the enemy.

He'd seen that look on her face before, multiple times while he was Zoisite of the Dark Kingdom, Commander of the European Division. It was as if some part of her recognized him, and for a moment, he wondered if he'd tranformed into his General state without knowing it. He'd almost thought that she would pull out her henshin pen and kill him right there and then.

It made shame whirl up quicker than any reprimanding from Kiyoshi, and it made guilt fester more rapidly than seeing any survivor of his previous attacks.

He could blame all the attacks on him being brainwashed, but how did he allow himself to forget her? Why was he so weak that he couldn't even fight against the manipulations by Beryl like Endymion did?

A soft giggle brought him out of his reverie, and like a deer caught in the headlights, he ogled at Akane.

"As far as I know, Mizuno-san isn't seeing anyone yet," she said in a low voice. "There's a boy who seems very interested in her, but she spends too much time in the labs to be dating him."

_Boy? Interested in my Mercury?_ Bring on the name. Zachariah Gima had a whole cabinet full of toxic products waiting to be experienced on.

"But wouldn't people talk if a professor dates a student? Even if it's an assistant professor?" Akane asked curiously.

Zachariah coughed into his hand. "You're overthinking things, Hamanaka-san. I was just wondering what project she was working on."

Akane ah-ed and nodded her head, but she didn't seem the least bit convinced.

Coughing into his hand again, he turned swiftly towards the broken computer and started working on it.

"No love letters though. I heard she's allergic to them."

The sudden comment nearly made Zachariah pull out the wrong cables.

~-0-~


End file.
